Re: [buildcheapeeg] about low cost eeg

From: Doug Sutherland (wearable_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 2001-12-07 04:33:38


Hi Yaniv,

> one idea for low cost eeg: the palm m100 cost is $80.

Here are EEG waveforms displayed on a PocketPC:
http://www.eeg-persyst.com/magic_look.htm

Here's a palm pilot based ECG recorder:
http://tie.telemed.org/Citations.asp?ID=9738

Here are handspring visor modules that do brainwave
entraiment (binaural beats) like a mind machine:
http://neuralfxnow.com/welcome.html

Georgia Tech has explored similar PDA ideas:
http://swiki.cc.gatech.edu:8080/cs6750b/57

Thinking Caps Technologies for the disabled are fueling
the most mind-boggling advances, such as input devices
that—believe it or not—capture your thoughts. Wrap your
head around this: An electrode-studded cap picks up brain
waves, delivers them to an EEG machine, and feeds the
results to software that can maneuver a wheelchair or
type text. As for the able-bodied, a brain interface can
provide new forms of education and entertainment. Some
of the kinks: A mini EEG machine needs to be developed,
and who really wants to wear a swim cap at work?
http://www.pcmag.com/print_article/0,3048,a%253D10164,00.asp

Note: I have a bunch of brain-computer interface info here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~wearable/biopsy/#symbiosis

There are always major developments in pulse oximetry at the
ASA meetings, new clinical studies on the accuracy of various
vendors, and interesting new implementations of existing
technologies. This was true again this year. Anesthesiology,
like other fields of medicine, is seeing an influx of consumer
electronics into what used to be “proprietary” medical device
space. Palm and Compaq personal digital assistants (PDAs) are
everywhere, as is consumer wireless networking. The cleaver
companies take advantage of this, realizing they cannot
compete with such devices by offering proprietary package.
http://www.ahcpub.com/ahc_root_html/hot/archive/bbi112001.html

With a good understanding of how the human brain works,
integration of the human and the system is achieved. It
consists of improving the presentation of information to the
decision maker given a preference for displays, problem-solving
methods, current state of mind, and the situation at hand. The
majority of this information will be stored in a personal
digital assistant (PDA). The PDA can include training, exercises,
and real event data.
http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/volume1/chap01/v1c1-3.htm

> the lowest cost eeg with simplest output method, using
> specialized drivers on the palm side. is this possible?

I'm sure something is possible, but there are a number of
things to think about, like:

1) ComADC doesn't used the data transmit/receive serial
lines, instead it sends pulses over the serial handshake
lines. Palm pilots have these on their serial ports,
but I wonder if they can deal with the pulses fast
enough?

2) Is there enough CPU power and RAM in a palm pilot to
do fast enough spectral analysis? Certainly a Pocket
PC with 206Mhz SA-1110 (iPAQ etc) would be fast, but
I don't know about palm pilots, big difference in
power and RAM.

3) The tiny screen are not a great way to provide
feedback, especially the black-on-green LCDs. The
iPAQ refective color TFT might be good enough to
show some good color bar charts and such though.

> leaving for a sec the issues of computing power of
> palm, if we could make a $40 -$50 one channel eeg
> that interfaces straight to palm

I find it hard to believe that you can manufacture
anything for $40-$50 when considering the parts
plus labour plus overhead, especially in low volume.
I like the mobility idea though. If you produced one
I would take it an attach it to either and embedded
PC (PC/104) or StrongArm module (SA-1110).

-- Doug



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